Example of News Item Text: Sentenced for Trying Selling Lizard

Example of news item text in English – Now FreeEnglishCourse.info and you are learning kinds of English text dealing with the news. It is called news item text. It is one of the texts which should be studied by students of high school when learning English in classroom. This is what we called as learning English through texts based approach. If you want to know the basic knowledge of it, you can read what is news item text? first but if you have known it, you can read straightly the sample below!

However before reading the text, let’s me remind you that a news item should be arranged based on the schematic structure as below:

1. Newsworthy event: Introduction on WHO, WHEN, and WHERE of the event

2. Background events: Explaining on WHY or HOW the event happened

3. Source: It can be the agent/victim, witness, or authority side of the event

Don’t try to sell animals illegally, if you don’t want be in trouble. It was Donald Schultz who was sentenced and fined in a California federal court on Tuesday for trying an illegal lizard sale. What was wrong with him?

Donald Schultz was a former host of a popular Animal Planet TV show which features some of the world’s most deadly creatures. He was sentenced to community services for 200 hours and fined $ 9.000 because he was trying to sell two endangered lizards online.

How was he caught?
Donald Schultz met with the undercover agent who possed as a prospective buyer at his home in Los Angeles. There he agreed to ship the reptiles to another buyer in Buffalo, New York.

What was his guilty?
Donald Schultz was charged with one count of violating the Endangered Species Act, a federal law that protects and recovers imperiled species and ecosystems. He had pleaded guilty to trying to sell the desert monitor lizards to an undercover federal agent.

Prosecutors said that under a plea deal, Donald Schultz agreed to pay a $6,000 fine, $3,000 in restitution and 200 hours of community service.

Note on The Generic Structure of News Item Text
Every news item should be arranged in schematic structure as below! 1. Newsworthy event: This is the introduction of the news. It is about what happened, who involves in the event, where and when the event happens. In that news item we see clearly the news events is that a man, Donald Schult, was sentenced to community service and fined $ 9.000. It happened in in a California federal court on Tuesday.2. Background events: News item text will reveal the other events which closely relate to the news worthy event. In the above news we should know who the man is, how the man is caught, and what the man’s guilty is. Clearly we see those information in the paragraphs after the newsworthy paragraph. We found the information that Donald Schult was actually a former host of a popular Animal Planet TV show. Before he was brought to court, he me a prospective buyer who was actually an undercover agent. He was charged for violating the Endangered Species Act.3. Source: A news item text is usually ended with the news source. It can be from the actor or the victim, witness, or the authority. In the example of news item text above, we see the trusty source from the prosecutors.